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advice on abdominal wall reconstruction
I am always sorry to hear of someone suffering from multiple hernias and repairs like myself. The last surgery I had, one year ago, was abdominal wall reconstruction. I’m sure everyone recovers differently and it is dependent on the type of surgery you have, whether it is open, lap or robotic. I had open repair with an incision from hip to hip. I was in the hospital for 5 nights (ridiculous that insurance says day surgery for AWR). I had one drain removed before I left and had 2 drains in when I left the hospital. We had traveled out of town for the surgery, so we stayed across the street for another week to have the last two drains removed before going home, which is 5 hours away. My recovery was pretty slow and difficult, but my surgeon had told me it would be and it would take about 6 weeks before I even felt decent. He was right!! I did start walking in the hospital the day after and did lots of walking, in short distances, after leaving, as well. The nurses joked that they had never seen someone walk so many laps around the hall and that I was wearing a path! Haha. As Dr. Towfigh said, it is really important to avoid constipation. I had some trouble after surgery due to pain medicine. It is a good idea to take medicine to help with that issue and drink lots of water and move around often. Wearing an abdominal binder also helped with the discomfort, which may not be as much of an issue with lap repair. Preparing for surgery as much as you can is definitely a good idea- core strengthening and losing weight will surely help in recovery. I hope all goes well with your surgery and you can get back to being pain free. I am still striving for the same thing myself! Thanks to Dr. Towfigh for all of the great advice on this forum.